Saturday, September 29, 2007

Since I work in some pretty amazing buildings all over the city, I decided this week to bring along my new camera and shoot some of the more interesting things I get to look at while working. The first couple of shots are from the 14th and the 31st floor of 11 west 42nd.

And for those of you out there that think rainbows only happen in your neck of the woods, I took this shot from one of my windows yesterday right after this crazy weather front moved through from Jersey.

As far as the rest of the week goes, I'm still playing catch up after being away for a week and a half. I worked most of this past week, received some amazing mailart, especially the one from Ryosuke Cohen in Japan. It's part of his "Brain Cell" series. You can check out the link describing his ongoing "Brain Cell" project on my "Portrait MailArt" blog. I've included a scan of the piece he sent me because it deserves to be viewed as much as possible.

I'm also working out the details on a big mailart project with an Artist and highschool Art teacher in Canada. So far, the plan is to have her classes participate in a MailArt exchange with me and apparently the kids are pretty excited about the prospect of receiving artwork from a working Artist. More details as this comes to fruition.

One last note, I just finished printing up yet another Berube Bug, his name is "Squirmy Wormy". He'll debut on here tomorrow after he's dry.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Upon my return to the city, I discovered taxis covered with gigantic brightly colored flowers. Figuring that it would eventually be exposed as some evil ad campaign by Target, Walmart, Old Navy, The Gap, (take your pick), I was pleasantly surprised to find this article from the New York Times "City Room" Blog. Not so evil afterall.

The pics below are from my studio window this afternoon.

From the N.Y. Times:

"It's an idea that seems more like Woodstock, 1969, than New York City, 2007, but it has the Bloomberg administration's blessing and the city is going ahead with it.

Starting today and extending through December, hand-painted, adhesive, weatherproof images of giant decorative flowers will be applied to the hoods, trunks or roofs of New York City's yellow taxicabs. Ninety percent of the flowers were painted by children from the city's public schools and hospitals; a fraction were painted by children in New Jersey, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Cleveland and Los Angeles.

The flowers "will soon transform the ubiquitous yellow icon into a mobile artistic canvas," according to a news release from Portraits of Hope, the nonprofit program that is organizing the effort.

The vast public art project, known as "Garden in Transit," originated with two brothers, Ed and Bernie Massey, who founded Portraits of Hope in 1995. The project was intended to provide creative therapy for seriously ill and disabled children, but has expanded to include children and adults participating through schools, after-school programs, hospitals and nonprofit groups. Portraits of Hope has decorated blimps, buildings, tugboats, airplanes and even Nascar racers; the taxicabs are the group's latest effort.

Ed Massey conceived of the idea in spring 2000, and after preliminary meetings with the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission, Bernie Massey, his older brother, led a team in developing educational and civic engagement elements for the project. The taxi commission unanimously agreed to support the project in July 2006, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced the event at a news conference.

"By unleashing the creative power and civic pride of New Yorkers, our city has come together for one of the biggest volunteer efforts we have ever seen," the mayor said.

Bernie Massey, 46, said the flowers were chosen for the project because children everywhere — including the hospital wards the brothers visited — draw them. "It's the one universal symbol of hope, beauty, life, joy, inspiration," he said.

(The Massey brothers grew up in Los Angeles. When Bernie was asked whether he and Ed, 42, enjoyed flowers as children, he said, "We liked flowers, but they were no more special than anything else.")

The cab owners and drivers do not have to pay for the flower patterns, and participation is voluntary. The vinyl flowers do not damage the cabs and are easily removed. The organizers hope to get a majority of the city's 13,000 yellow cabs to participate. At a news conference today at Union Square, the organizers unveiled six cabs with the decals. Each cab can accommodate two or three panels; each panel has one to five flowers on it. About 27,600 panels have been painted, enough for each cab to have two.

"The kids have done their part," Bernie Massey said. "Now it's up to the taxicab industry. The mayor's office and the T.L.C. are trying to rally the support of the industry."

Garden in Transit is a privately financed effort that has included about $1.5 million in cash donations so far. Helen and Peter Bing, a California-based couple, and Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield have been among the donors to the project. Vornado Realty Trust provided about 20,000 square feet of studio space, while MACtac, a manufacturer of adhesive products, gave deep discounts on the flower decals.

Somewhere along the way I decided to send myself postcards from the various places I've visited over the years including: China, Thailand, Italy, France, Puerto-Rico and all over the U.S. This last week while in Florida I brought along a bunch of post cards to mail out to others as well as myself. It was a great way to relax and do a little no-stress art while vacationing. The version of the card I sent to myself includes the original linocut with some color pencil added and a watercolor image of the ocean and clouds I was admiring while sitting under a palm tree in a state park on the tip of Key West. I also added some collage work from the map we got at the guest house we stayed in, in Key West. The concierge scribbled so many directions on the map it was virtually impossible to discern what he talked about when he was giving us tips on where to go, what to eat, the best beach...... I also added some watercolor and peeled away some layers of the card later while in Ft. Lauderdale.

I still have 4 more cards left, if you're interested in receiving one, let me know. Otherwise they'll be buried in a pile in my studio and lost forever.

Alright, I just wrote out this lengthy, long-winded tale of my last few days in Ft. Lauderdale, including a description of a post card I made and mailed out to 25 people and my pending return back to NYC and my friends shitty ass computer crashed and wiped out everything I just wrote, so.... to expedite things in fear of losing it all again.

Pics of my postcard being mailed to friends, family and mailart buddies around the world, Spain, Poland, France, Canada.

A pic of my friends Chris and John's dogs, Nicky and Rocco cooling in the wet sand after Chris and I transplanted 7 clumps of 20' palms in his back yard. Yes, I have the blisters to prove it.

The beach front apartment complex I'm hanging with my Friend Michael at. Supposedly Elizabeth Taylor stayed here for a summer way back when. It's got a lot of incredible details but has been neglected for way too long so it's a bit rough around the edges.

And finally, one more cloud and ocean pic, because it is hurricane season down here and the cloud formations are nothing short of spectacular.

Alright, that's it for now, maybe a little beach before lunch and then off to the airport and back to the madness that I call home.

Got back from Key West last night. Hanging with friends in Ft. Lauderdale for the next 4 days before returning to NYC.

Figured I would upload a few pics from the trip to the Keys. Off season, peak hurricane season = no-one on Key West, beautiful hot balmy weather and water as warm as a bath. And I love it all. Give me the heat any day!!!

Bridge Joining Keys

Fort Zachary Taylor State Park & Beach / Key West Florida

Sargent Spike Blanchard

Bahia Honda State Park (Bahia Honda Key)

This place was absolutely magical, and maybe a dozen people spread out along a mile + stretch of beach. There wasn't much sand to lay a blanket down, but once in the water, you could walk out a good 100+ feet and still only be in water up to your chest.Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful!!!

We'll see what the rest of my stay in Ft. Lauderdale brings.

Peace,David

And Thank You to anyone who sent me a birthday wish. It was greatly appreciated.

A couple of pics from the first day on the beach here in Ft. Lauderdale. And a special treat photo. I bumped into Cousin Billie-Bob Berube on the beach and he was tickled pink when I asked him to pose for a shot showing of his loverly dental work.

Enjoy!!!! I know I am.

Off to the Keys this morning for a few days, more pics when I get back.

Well, I'm finally getting out of town for a non-work related short break after being in the city all summer. I usually manage to get away during the summer for a trip, but this year it just didn't happen. And anyone who lives in NYC knows that in order to keep your head on straight, get a grip on reality, you need to leave the city every once in a while. (at least I do)

So tomorrow morning I leave for Ft. Lauderdale to hang out with friends that I've known from college, friends that I've made here in the city and with a former roommate from Chicago. The only real thing we have planned is a side trip to the keys, of which I've never been to and have wanted to visit for quite some time. Other than that, there will be a lot of beach, a lot of relaxation and some artwork to be included into my travel journal.

This past couple of weeks has been nothing short of insane. With Fashion Week here in the city, I've had plenty of freelance work, (1 day off), in addition to that I completed the T-shirt project for The Family Stand, (finished it on my 1 day off).

This time of year also marks the changes of season. The nights and mornings get noticably cooler, leaves start to fall off of the trees, (thank god I have a few trees outside my building), the kids go back to school, (I live acroos and down the street from 2 schools, and I have a birthday approaching. Most notably though is the fact that my "A Face A Day" project with see the end of the drawing portion of the project. On September 12, my birthday, I will draw the final image. And then the real fun starts, I get to finish printing the images. I stopped printing somewhere around image number 70-something and with the weather changing, I'm looking forward to having an excuse to refocus some attention on this project.

I've included a couple of pics from one of the projects I worked on this past week. It was my "job" to spend 6 hours each day on a ladder pushing fake flowers into 20 foot columns of boxwood and styrofoam. Technically, I'm not supposed to tell you who the work is for, (confidentiality clause), so just enjoy the pretty pics. The clothing was beautiful, the showroom stunning when finished, and then at 9 a.m. the next morning, promptly dismantled. Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha.

I just got done cleaning up a print I did recently in order to be used for a T-shirt being sold at the upcoming Family Stand performances taking place in NYC this coming week. It'll be printed white ink on a black tee.

T-shirts will be sold at the shows, you can get more info on the band and their scheduled gigs on their myspace page. The Family Stand

If you can't make it to the show but want a tee, let me know and I'll put one aside for you.

The first group of shots were taken this afternoon looking out my studio window. As long as I've been here, this time every year a cavalcade of motocycles comes off the West Side Highway and heads up 52nd street past my apartment. It starts out with the police escort stopping traffic at the intersection of 52nd/10th ave. and then the rumble gets louder and louder as the motorcycles approach. People eventually have to stop from crossing the streets so they start waving and screaming at the bikes who in turn honk their horns and rev their motors. There's easily a few hundred motorcycles going by and it usually lasts a good 20 minutes or so until the last pass by. This year there was a collection of vintage cop cars and a vintage fire truck in the mix. (See the guy in the Red Beret, that's my landlord, Sonny).

This second grouping of shots was taken from a friends apartment around the corner from where I live. When people ask me why so much of my artwork is full of a crazy amount of details sometimes to the point of appearing abstract, I look around me and I say, "This is what I've been looking at for 10 years". Layers upon layers and more layers. It's dificult to not let that influence my artwork.

So they're filming some suspense thriller on my street this past weekend going into this coming week starring Elliot Gould and Frank Langella.

Friday as I was sitting at my computer I spotted Elliot Gould crossing the street and coming towards the corner I live on, just happens to be where they have their trailers set up so my partner and I hung out the window, screamed his name and took a couple of really crappy photos of him without a flash. His assistant was getting a kick out of it, check out her smile.

As a side affect of cutting out so much linoleum for various projects over the years I end up with zillions of small seemingly unusable pieces of linoleum. Not one to waste anything, I decided to use the small pieces for mini-prints and what goes perfect with a mini-sized piece of linoleum? Bugs, creatures, and various tidbits from the deepeset, darkest recesses of my brain.

The pile of mini linoleum was getting to be a bit much this past month so I decided to go on a bug hunting expedition and this is what I came up with.

After I get enough of a variety of theses guys and gals printed up I plan on hand-stitching an edition of small fold-out books. For now, here's the small grouping of Berube Bugs I have done.

Let me know what you think.

Just so you know, they're not meant to be perfect. They're usually fast little sketches and often smaller than 2 - 3 inches.

I just added 2 more new mailart submissions to my MailArt Blog and it's a hell of a lot easier uploading the images to one place, so I'm going to direct you to my blog specifically put together for my MailArt Extravaganza.

All other blog entries not having to do with MailArt will still be posted here... in case you're interested.

I finally scanned and put together the 3 latest submissions to my "Portrait" MailArt call.

If you would like to see all of the submissions in one place, check out my new Blogger account created specifically for the "Portrait" project. You can also check out the links section for some of the participating artists and find new MailArt calls to submit to. Join in on the fun. Every submission to me gets a one-of-a-kind return postcard!!!!!

I had called home during my trip to Columbus Ohio to check in and of course find out if I had received any more submissions to my "Portrait" MailArt Call. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I had in fact gotten another very cool "Camera Obscura" submission from Frip in Belgium. I love these images, once again, hauntingly beautiful. I'd love to see the actual photos some time!!!!

Today as I arrived home and entered my building, I promptly checked the mail and once again I was pleasantly surprised by yet another very cool image from a new submitter. This time Candace Porth from Arizona sent what I believe is a self-portrait with a great quote from Diane Arbus, "A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know".

Thanks again to Frip and Thank You to Candace Porth for the submissions. I'll get new 1-of-a-kind post cards out to you this week!!!

If you're interested in participating in my "Portrait" MailArt Call, here are the details.

On September 12 2006 I started a project titled, "AFace A Day". I've drawn a face inspired by someone,something, alive, dead, make believe.... each andevery day since September 12th 2006. These drawingsare created on a small piece of linoleum and theneventually cut out and printed, to date I have 74images printed up with the remainder of the imagesjust waiting to be cut out.

As I print these images I usually print a few extraonto postcard weight pieces, some make it into themail, others sit around my studio waiting for a chanceto take a trip through the postal system.

I've been fascinated with mailart my whole life andthought this would be a great opportunity to exchangework with other mail artists.

In keeping with my "A Face A Day" project, I'd like toexchange postcards with your version of a portrait.Once again the subject of the portrait is up to yourinterpretation of that. Please include the date ofcreation along with the image.

End date is May 22 2008, your postcards will be postedon my MySpace blog as I receive them.

Please include your full address, email address and ifyou would like, a link to your site.

I will be sending a 1-of-a-kind postcard of my own to allparticipants.

So the trip to Ohio feels like it came and went in the blink of an eye. Probably a result of the fact that Del and I worked from sun-up to midnight every day and by yesterday, we were so exhausted it was all we could do to stand upright.

Having said that, it was a wonderful weekend with one of my best buddies in the world. I arrived Thursday afternoon and on the way out to the Wellness Forum Foods kitchen, (the business Del co-owns), we stopped at his buddy Yovan's Coffeehouse on Indianola just north of ???. Nothing more than a standing room only space with the actual coffee roasters in the front and Yovan making the french-pressed brewed coffee behind the counter, this is the ONLY place to get truly fresh and delicious coffee in Columbus. If you live in Columbus or happen to be passing through and you want an amazing coffee, there is no other place in Columbus that beats it. Having had worked in a coffeehouse for 3 years, you can trust me, this is the real stuff.

On to the kitchen, we ended up getting the remaining food prepped for Friday mornings first day at the Comfest.

So as to save you the torture of reading a lengthy boring blog, I'll sum up the 3 days of ComFest by saying, early mornings, late nights, mostly sunny, a couple rain storms, lot's of large lesbians, lot's of tattoos and body piercing, lot's of drunk frat boys, lot's of hippies, topless women, (it's legal in Columbus, who knew?), groups of Appalachian boys with their pants hanging off their asses and quite a few preppy families. (Mix and Match any of those descriptions). All in all a pretty diverse, colorful and tolerant group of people enjoying the many booths of good food, artwork and 5 stages with live music. Each night, the park was filled with groups of people enjoying the festivities with their blankets laid out, beer in hand and their 420 blazing.

I didn't take a lot of photos, truthfully, it was pretty much the same thing each day, just a slight variation in the quantity of it.

All in all Del's first ComFest as Executive Chef and Co-Owner of The Wellness Forum Foods was a great success. We sold out of all of our food both Saturday and Sunday night and everybody who sampled the all-vegan menu loved each and every dish.

In addition, I saw people in Columbus that Del and I hadn't seen since working together at King Avenue Coffeehouse in the early 90's and since Del has been in the healthy foods industry in Columbus for more than 20 years, I was introduced to some of the most influential people in the industry in Columbus.

I look forward to heading back to Cols., this time for a little rest and relaxation!!!

So I finished the next 2 post cards that I'm sending out to the 2 international submissions I rcv'd for my "Portrait" MailArt Call. They went into the post this morning. 1 to Belgium and the other to Spain.

I'm having a hell of a lot of fun making these. Since these images aren't officially part of my "A Face A Day" series, it allows me a bit of freedom by taking previously cut portrait linos and essentially doing whatever it is I feel like doing to them. For these 2, I also added a new linocut to the front of the card. Following in the steps of a series I started many, many years ago called "Berube Bugs", I've created a new bug and printed it on to a bunch of post cards. Something I haven't done in at least a year. What essentially started out as a way of using scrap pieces of linoleum and scrap pieces of great printmaking paper over the years has turned into a collection of 30 or so bugs.

On another note, I'll be heading out to Columbus Ohio on Thursday to hang out and work with my friend Delmas. He's an incredible Vegan chef, with his own Vegan meal delivery service in Columbus. This weekend there's a big community festival and I offered my services to Del. This way I get to hang out with one of my favorite people in the world, play outside, eat great food and get the hell out of NYC for 6 days.

Since we'll be working at least 12 hour days all weekend, it'll be a little quiet on the MySpace front.

I have the day Monday to myself, and I have new camera, so if all goes well I should have some pics for you.

So this morning I received my second International "Portrait" MailArt Call Submission.

Yet another brilliant and creative submission, this time from Miguel Jimenez in Spain. He sent his interpretation of a portrait, a self-portrait drawn onto a C.D. and appropriately titled, "Self Portrait In The Mirror". Quite a brilliant use of materials if I say so myself. I love the reclamation of items that are no longer useable for their intended purpose.

You can check out his stuff at www.eltallerdezenon.com and participate in one of his MailArt Calls.

Thanks Miguel for the very cool submission.

YOU CAN CHECK OUT THIS SUBMISSION AND MANY MORE IN MY "PORTRAIT MAILART CALL" BLOG

I received my first international submission to my Portrait MailArt call today. A hauntingly beautiful "camera obscura" image on the front of the post card and the back has a multitude of stamps and a quick note from Frips who apparently hails from Belgium.

From the looks of it, Frips is quite the participant in the International MailArt scene and the mailArt scene in Belgium specifically. Go to http://www.frips.be/mailart.htm to see exactly whayt I'm talking about.

I can't wait to send my reply out and add to a few other MailArt calls Frips has going on.

Thanks Frips for the beautiful submission.

YOU CAN CHECK OUT THE MAILART FROM FRIPS AND MANY MORE IN MY "PORTRAIT MAILART CALL" BLOG.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

So this week I've been putting in a few display windows for Cartier at the Waldorf Astoria, trust me, it's sounds a lot more glamourous than it actually is. You know, it's the same as every other visual job, missing supplies, crappy supplies, working in rooms with no ventilation and being in windows on busy streets with all walks of life staring at you like you have 3 heads.

The benefit of this installation was that the windows we were working on happened to be a few feet away from the side entrances to the hotel. Not only did we get to see a host of political figures coming and going, today as I was in the window I happened to look up as Sir Richard Branson stopped for photos and got into his limo. I just happened to be watching David Letterman last night and he was one of the guests. Otherwise, I'm not sure I would have realised who he was.

A little later in the afternoon, a limo pulled up and I saw the unmistakeable vision of Donatella Versace step out and walk into the side entrance. She's just as memorable in real life as she's portrayed on T.V. and in publications.

Now, this next one is purely speculation on my part, but way too many details over the past few days point to it being a reality. Earlier in the week, I learned that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were supposed to show up for a "Friends In Deed" benefit hosted by Steve Martin at the home of one of my freelance accts. And yesterday as I was walking through the Waldorf Astoria I overheard someone saying, "Did you see Angelina?", immediately after which I saw a young nanny holding a beautiful little girl that looked suspiciously like Angelina's daughter Zahara. Today, the paparazzi were pretty thick outside the Waldorf and I also discovered on my walk home today that Angelina's new movie, "A Mighty Heart", is premiering at the Zeigfeld Theater this evening, of which she's attending. It also happens to be a few blocks away from the Waldorf.

I told you it's all speculation, but I'd be willing to bet she's staying at the hotel. One of the reasons stars and other celebs stay at the hotel is because they have an entrance that affords privacy to anyone who wants it. The side entrance goes under and through the building to the other side. And paparazzi are not allowed inside the tunnel.

Since I didn't actually see her, I'm not going to bother posting a pic below with the other two.

Alright, now that my freelance visual work week is over, it's back to artwork... the part of my life that really counts!!!

So I've finally finished up the 2 post cards I'm sending out to the first 2 people who sent submissions for my Portrait MailArt Call.

They're printed on posters that musicians promo people post up in the neighborhood that I promptly tear down and cut up into post card sized bits. Hey, otherwise they stay up until the rain hits them and they make a mess on the street. Let's just call it my form of recycling. Besides with one of Sony's recording studios a block away from here, there's never a shortage of posters.

Staying true to the portrait project, the postcards are printed up with one of my "Face" images and then altered appropriately according to my mood and whats within arms reach. These to pieces have acrylic paint added to the printed face image and then some hand-stitching added for extra measure. I hope they make it through the post alright!!!

My apologies, the color of the scans kind of stink and you really can't appreciate the stitching as well as if you had it in front of you. But you get the idea. Plus, I created a cool little print for the back of the post card, but you only get to see it if you participate in the fun and send me a portrait piece yourself.

Just when I thought I wasn't going to receive any submissions to my MailArt call for portraits, I was pleasantly surprised to receive another submission in the post today. This one is from Eddie Nero who sent some really cool items in a see-thru windowed envelope including his interpretation of one large portrait and a whole slew of stamps with other portraits on them that he says were based on doodles inspired by his weekly staff meetings. I've had many staff meetings like that... and used to do some of my most interesting doodles during them as well.